Asteroid dust in Chicxulub crater seals deal on dino extinction

Scientists examined rock cores taken from the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, site of the asteroid impact that triggered dinosaur extinction, and found iridium, a telltale sign of asteroids. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/asteroid-dust-iridium-chicxulub-crater-dinosaur-extinction…

Astrophysicists design ‘radically different’ world map

You know the old problem of how to portray the round globe of Earth on a flat map? Now a trio of map experts has worked together to solve this problem. Their new map is 2-sided and round. Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/astrophysicists-new-design-world-map…

Google Finally Adds iOS Privacy Labels To Gmail

Google today quietly added App Privacy labels to its Gmail app, marking the first of its major apps to receive the privacy details aside from YouTube. From a report: Though App Privacy information has been added to Gmail, Google has done so server side and has yet to issue an update to the Gmail app. It has been two months since…

There’s Still No Sign of Privacy Labels On Most Google iOS Apps

As of December 8, Apple has been requiring developers to provide privacy label information to their apps, outlining the data that each app collects from users when it is installed. Many app developers have included the labels, but there’s one notable outlier — Google. schwit1 shares a report from MacRumors: Google has not updated its major apps like Gmail, Google Maps,…

Google Maps’ Moat is Evaporating

An anonymous reader shares an analysis: See, Google Maps is not just an app on your phone. It’s also a suite of developer tools that power countless other applications that are used by millions of people every day. And that part of the business is known as the Google Maps Platform (but most of the time I hear it referred to…

Google Waives $1.5 Billion DeepMind Loan as AI Costs Mount

Alphabet’s Google waived a 1.1 billion-pound loan ($1.5 billion) to DeepMind in 2019 after the U.K.-based artificial intelligence lab continued to ramp up the scale of its research and development. From a report: Revenue jumped 158% in 2019, DeepMind said in a financial filing this week. Sales were 265.5 million pounds, up from 102.8 million pounds a year earlier. Its losses…

Google Maps Takes on Facebook With Launch of Its Own News Feed

People are getting frustrated that Stories are everywhere now, but Google Maps is keeping it old school. From a report: Instead of adding tiny circles to the top of the app’s screen, Google Maps is introducing its own news feed. Technically, Google calls its new feature the “Community Feed,” as it includes posts from a local area. However, it’s organized as…

Google Maps To Block Users From ‘Virtual Visits’ of Australian Uluru

misnohmer writes: In 2019, the Australian site of Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock, has been closed to tourists “after the Anangu people said it was being trashed by visitors eroding its surface, dropping rubbish and polluting nearby waterholes,” according to CNN. Parks Australia has now has asked Google to remove all imagery of the site uploaded by the community, as…

Huawei Finally Launches Brilliant Google Alternative

Since Huawei’s latest smartphones have no access to Google’s Play Store, many crucial apps aren’t available. David Phelan from Forbes reports that TomTom Go Navigation has launched on Huawei’s own “AppGallery” app store, filling the void of navigation apps and making AppGallery a potent alternative to Google’s Play Store. Phelan writes: TomTom […] is an unquestionable big beast in the world…